Blue's Clues
Blue's Clues & You! is a live-action/animated interactive educational children's television series. the television series acts as both a reboot and prequel of the original 1996 Blue's Clues TV series with a new host, Joshua Dela Cruz, and it is co-developed by original series creators Angela C. Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson. The series is being produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and 9 Story Media Group's Brown Bag Films. It premiered on November 11, 2019. Cast and characters Main * Blue (voiced by Traci Paige Johnson) – A blue puppy who leaves pawprints on objects as clues to what she wants to say. * Josh (played by Joshua Dela Cruz) – The host of the new series. He is a cousin of Steve and Joe from the original series. * Mailbox (voiced by Michael Rubin and Doug Murray) - A mailbox who delivers a message to Josh every day. * Sidetable Drawer (voiced by Liyou Abere) - The keeper of the Handy Dandy Notebook, who lives in the living room. * Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper (voiced by Brad Adamson and Gisele Rousseau) - A married couple of condiment dispensers who live in the kitchen. * Paprika (voiced by Shechinah Mpumlwana) - Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's eldest child. She carries a cell phone made from a piece of bread. * Cinnamon (voiced by Jaiden Cannatelli) - A cinnamon shaker who is Paprika's younger brother. He wears a baseball cap. * Ginger and Sage - Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's newborn twins. Paprika and Cinnamon are learning how to take care of them. * Shovel and Pail (voiced by Leo Orgil and Jordana Blake) - A brother and sister who live in the backyard. * Tickety Tock (voiced by Kelly Nigh and Ava Augustin) - An alarm clock who wakes the residents of the Blue's Clues House each morning. * Slippery Soap (voiced by Jacob Soley) - A bar of soap who lives in the bathroom sink. He slides around everywhere he goes. Recurring * Magenta (voiced by Diana Selema) - A magenta puppy who is Blue's best friend from school. She debuts in the episode "Playdate with Magenta". * Steve (played by Steven Burns) - Josh's cousin, a college graduate who works at the Blue Prints Detective Agency. He was the first host of the original series. * Joe (played by Donovan Patton) - Josh's other cousin, who works at the Present Store. He was the second host of the original series. * Periwinkle (voiced by Kenny Kim and Jansen Panettiere) - A periwinkle kitten who performing magic tricks. Minor * Orange Kitten (voiced by Naelee Rae) * Purple Kangaroo (voiced by Max Behren) Production In 2017, the original show's producers, Angela C. Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson, after many years of trying to bring Blue's Clues back to Nickelodeon, they were given permission to develop a reboot for 20 episodes. On March 11 through to April 17, 2018, Nickelodeon posted a video discussing the audition process for the series. Over a thousand people participated in the auditions including John Cena, Jamie Kennedy, Adam Devine, Elijah Wood and Jelani Remy, best known from Disney's The Lion King on Broadway were all turned down the roles. The writer Santomero and producer Lisa Henson from The Jim Henson Company originally wanted to offer the role of new host to Kermit the Frog; at that point, he was a Muppet star only from The Muppets Studio. On September 13, 2018, Nickelodeon announced that Joshua Dela Cruz, best known as an understudy for Disney's Aladdin on Broadway, would be the series' host. Dela Cruz, who grew up in New Jersey, watched the original show with his younger sister and was first Asian-American to host Blue's Clues. Steve Burns, host of the original series, participated in the casting process. Principal photography began on October 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On December 2018, Vic Mignogna, Laura Bailey, Tara Sands, Chuck Huber, Brad Adamson, Gisele Rousseau and Doug Murray had joined the cast of the series. 9 Story Media Group's live action and animation division will co-produce the series with animators from Brown Bag Films and Sony Pictures Imageworks. The animators updated the show with objects familiar to preschoolers; for example, a phone was used instead handy dandy notebook and an email arrived during mail time. Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen announced that DreamWorks Television would be revival for the first time in 4 years since Falling Skies and they also served as an executive producers. Jackie Chan from Sparkle Roll Media and Pharrell Williams' I Am Other was also included in the list of companies and also served as an co-executive producers. On January 16, 2019, it was announced the majority of the cast had been revised since The Good Dinosaur in 2015. Of the original cast, only Murray, Adamson and Rousseau retained their roles in the series. It was revealed that Mignogna had been replaced by Jacob Soley, because he accused of sexual harassment allegations. Burns explained: "He has determined that inappropriate for his role as Slippery Soap with our audiences. He keeps looks strange and rude behavior, as well as these angry parents are blasting about his harasses at him and these children were disappointed at him for the first time on Nickelodeon for his unwanted physical advances. He's just too mature for the character". On October 2019, Cruz also explained: "It's very different from Kevin Spacey. Sexual harassment was the real thing. Our children should be seen and never heard. Without Vic, it couldn't get any worse. Therefore, he was totally grateful and for his future holds". On January 25, 2019, The Westminster Children's Choir would return to child voice-overs from the reboot for the first time in 49 years since Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town in 1970. Paige Johnson and Santomero confirmed both assignments for the reboot at Princeton United Methodist Church in March 2019. It was confirmed that recording was underway, with both Paige Johnson and Tom T. Shelton, Jr. had a voice recording sessions. On 2019, during voice recording, Yuri Lowenthal, Shuki Levy and Masa Fukuda initially planned to record a collaboration for their second and final song from the film "Chanukah Blessings". Lowenthal would be a lead vocals, One Voice Children's Choir would be a background vocals and The Westminster Children's Choir would be three spoken parts during Levy and Fukuda's production schedule on the upcoming animated film Ben Tennyson: God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. On August 26, 2019, Burns and Patton would be returning to portray their respective characters during the filming, Patton's performance was constructed from 23 unaired episodes from the original 1996 Blue's Clues TV series from season 5 in 2002 through to 2003 and Patton returning as a host only. The unaired episodes itself was re-edited to air as flashback scenes for all 23 episodes. The frame scenes feature Josh and Blue looking through his scrapbook and remembers about Joe's friends. On September 20, 2019, it was announced that Kennedy would not challenge for host credit and instead agreed to co-executive producer credit with Chan and Williams. Later on September 27, 2019, it was revealed that Bailey had been replaced by Shechinah Mpumlwana, Sands had been replaced by Ava Augustin and Huber had been replaced by Naelee Rae. On November 19, 2019, the series was renewed for a second season of 20 episodes. On November 21, 2019, following the release of eighth episode on this show, Son of the Mask and Scream actor Jamie Kennedy got upset and anger, because he calls Dela Cruz used that word racist. Nickelodeon and Kennedy has accusations of copying the idea for the reboot version from original version and racist abuse while watching Blue's Clues & You! episodes. Then, Kennedy had a controversy erupted over alleged appropriation of 1990s live action and animation series. Later that night, after Kennedy had a conversation of Dela Cruz's video message, he explained: "This is what's going on with you and do this. It was broadly agreed in our culture that kids are allowed to do some dumb things because they're kids. This children's show is extremely racist and the fact that a lot of children are watching this makes my water boil. His swear for his life. So the reboot version that those kids nobody knew it's just crazy! Those kids are absolute racist. You don't copy those episodes that way! You don't copy all that! And that if Paige Johnson productions had pursued legal action against Nickelodeon". On December 20, 2019,